I think I’ll get in this end. Oh, it’s a little deep! Do you have anything shallower? No? Just this here deep end? Ok then, sure. Why not? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen – get to rep 8 and realise that you’re going to be all kinds of torn up tomorrow? Ha!

The overhead lunging component was much better than I expected. First 5 reps had the renegade rows on the horns, but in the interest of safety I settled for planting my hand on the top of the ball of the bell.

The commute each day. No weights or extras except for a really nice Thursday morning ultra short Mt Pleasant loop with Andrew Logue from work, before work. Lucky I invited him along because Jim bailed (again). Such is small baby life.

Today I watched others utterlystomp the Festive 500, and ate as much junk (read: tasty) food as I have in the previous two years combined. Now I need to sleep it off. Sleep it off and ride and throw heavy things around. Hmmm…

Mt Pleasant Shorty:
58 km / 814 m / 2:11:00

Weekly totals:
126 km / 1,566 m / 8:11:00

So ends recovery week. Even though it’s been light and low volume I’ve been without any zap in the legs at all. Each day feels a little like I did a big ride the day before. It’s either accumulated volume (unlikely) or the hangover of coming up to speed with the new (much larger) job. Either way, I’d love to get under a rack and do some squats. It feels like that might help shake it.

Next week wraps up the base period and then it’s into the hard stuff. It’s going to hurt a lot, but it’s a comforting kind of hurt. 10 and 11 hour “base” weeks with scarcely one long ride a have been making me nervous.

Work is crazy as hell. Exciting, but tiring. Which is about right; if you recall my last successful Odyssey attempt it occurred about the time of the most intense period of work I’ve ever had.

Followed by the Yarraville Carols by Candelight. Big night for all, ending in fireworks!

Sun
SKCC Crits, C Grade
Sketchy bunch conditions – one guy went down at speed going hard into corner two about three wheels up from me and slid hard along the road. Another dude in BMC kit narrowly escaped the same fate a couple of laps later. Two guys hit cones but didn’t come down and some deliberate accordianing of the group by someone up front towards the end had bars touching bums. I crossed the line in about 8th place and would have needed to be more agressive in the straight before the last turn to contest the win. I think I have the power but I’m lacking the judgement to find the position.

Simon Gerrans took home A Grade honours, but the real star of the day was Claire, who toed the start line for the first time ever and came away with her very own SKCC jersey, cap and a fat ass bag of lollies. Not a bad haul!34km / 40.9km/h / 0:52

Followed by filling in the trench for our new carport’s electrical cable. Maybe three cubic meters of pretty nasty clay shovellin’.

Totals:
11 hrs, 246km
3m3

Looking back at the training plan, I see that next week is not the recovery week I thought it was. This week was supposed to be recovery. I see no reason not to swap, what with it being Christmas and all. This is probably not a great time to admit that I’m already way down on hours compared to the plan – which was for daily commuting with 7 hrs of big-ride extras on top. But it is a good time to think about how the last Odyssey I rode in was race on the back of about four and a half hours of (admittedly high quality) saddle time a week.

Before CrossFit, Jim used to take me to Jeff’s place, where I had the shit beaten out of me at the oval down the street from his place. He’d line up sandbags, slam balls and kettlebells, each one with a movement, and have us run to the other side of the oval and back in between stations. I did push-ups from the knees. I stumbled and walked. I spew-burped and tried not to bruise my forearms with the bells, but I kept coming back. I remember thinking that Jim, John, Jeff and Jase were the strongest, most hard core mother fuckers and nicest all round blokes I’d ever seen.

After being away from the conditioning work for a little while it seemed fitting to go back, sort of, to where it all began for me and heavy things.